Abstract
The computation of reserves available for a potential open-pit operation must be undertaken in conjunction with a preliminary pit design, for it is this which defines the limits of the mineable mineralization and not the geological fringes of the deposit. Even at the exploration stage, the geologist must bear in mind the constraints imposed by open-pit mining and must continually reassess whether the deposit under evaluation can still be mined by this means and whether a profit can be made at present prices and costs. Future possible trends in these economic parameters must also be taken into account. It is a pointless exercise to continue expensive drilling on a deposit whose grade or tonnage or depth or morphology, or any combination of these, makes its exploitation no longer an attractive proposition.
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Annels, A.E. (1991). Design and Evaluation of Open-pit Operations. In: Mineral Deposit Evaluation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9714-4_5
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